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Psalm 66:1-6, 14-18 Thanksgiving for Deliverance
Acts
17:22-31 The Meaning and Purpose of Life
1 Peter 3:15-22
Discipleship
John 14:15-21 The Baptism of the Holy Spirit
Psalm:
Let all God's people rejoice;
glorify his name with singing and give him great praise! Let us
acknowledge his awesome deeds and his great power. His enemies
tremble with fear before him. Let all the earth worship and praise
the name of the Lord.
Look and see what the Lord
has done; his works are awesome beyond mankind's ability or
understanding! “He turned the sea into dry land; men passed
through the river on foot” (Psalm 66:6).
I will
keep the promises I made to the Lord when I was in trouble. I will
give to the Lord offerings and sacrifices. “Come and hear, all
you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for me. I cried
aloud to him, and he was extolled with my tongue. If I had
cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened”
(Psalm 66:17-18; see Conditions for Answered Prayer, sidebar, top
right).
Acts:
Paul was forced to flee to
Athens from persecution for his preaching of the Gospel. While he
was there waiting for his helpers to come to him, he observed the
shrines and idols of the Athenians. His custom as a Jewish
Christian missionary was to go to the local synagogue on the
Jewish Sabbath and preach the Gospel, showing how Jesus fulfilled
the Bible scriptures of God's promised Messiah (Christ; both mean
“anointed”), God's “anointed” Savior and eternal King. In
Athens he went to the local public forum, the Areopagus, and began
proclaiming the Gospel from the cultural perspective he had
observed in Athens.
He began by saying that he had
noticed that the Athenians were very “religious,” and he had
even noticed that they had a shrine to an “unknown God.” So
Paul was proclaiming the God they had worshiped as unknown.
The one true God, the God of Israel, is the creator
of heaven and earth and everything in them. God does not need
humans to build shrines for him, or to do or give anything to him,
because God himself has given life and breath and everything to
all people of the world. “And he made from one every nation of
men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined
allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation, that they
should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after and find
him. Yet he is not far from each one of us"(Acts17:26-27).
Paul had been formally educated, and he quoted from memory
from Greek writings of Epimenides and Aratus to make the point
that it is in God that “we live and move and have being,”
being God's children (since he is our creator).
Since
we are God's offspring, we shouldn't imagine that God is like
gold, silver, stone or wood, fashioned by the art and imagination
of humans. God overlooked our ignorance in the past, but now God
commands everyone to repent (turn from disobedience to obedient
trust in God). God has fixed a day when he is going to judge the
world in righteousness (doing what is good and right and true,
according to God's Word), by Jesus Christ, whom God has appointed.
God has verified that Jesus is the Christ, the righteous judge, by
raising him from physical death to eternal life.
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Peter:
The Apostle Peter was making disciples of
Jesus Christ, according to the Great Commission Jesus gave to his
disciples (Matthew 28:19-20), to be carried out after they had
been “born-again” (John 3:3, 5-8; Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4-5, 8)
by the gift (“anointing,” baptism) of the Holy Spirit.
Peter taught new believers to reverence Christ in their
hearts, and to always be prepared to defend their faith to anyone
who challenges them, but to do it with reverence and gentleness.
Christian disciples are to live according to Jesus'
teaching and example, resisting the temptations to do things
contrary to God's Word, so that when the enemies of the Gospel
abuse and persecute us it will be they who are put to shame by our
righteous behavior. It is far better for us to suffer unjustly for
doing what is right than for us to suffer deservedly for doing
wrong.
Jesus is our example of righteous suffering
for the unrighteous. Though he was sinless he died for our sins,
so that we could be attributed with his righteousness and be able
to enter into God's presence. Jesus died physically but was raised
to spiritual, eternal life.
In the days of Noah,
the people didn't give heed to Noah's warning of God's judgment
and the call to repent. God was patient with them during the time
it took for Noah to build and prepare the Ark (120 years;* Genesis
5:32; 7:6).
Noah and his household, only eight
souls, were saved from condemnation through the Flood. Christian
Baptism is the modern equivalent, which saves us not as physical,
but rather, spiritual cleansing of our conscience by our appeal to
God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus has ascended
into heaven, at the right hand (place of honor) of God, with
absolute authority over angels, powers rulers and regulations in
heaven and on earth (except God the Father, of course; see 1
Corinthians 15:27).
John:
After the Last
Supper with his disciples, and knowing that he would be betrayed
that night, Jesus began his farewell discourse to his disciples,
to prepare them for what would soon take place.
Jesus
told them that if they loved him they would keep Jesus'
commandments, and Jesus promised to intercede for them with God
the Father, who would give them “another counselor,” the
Spirit of truth, who would be with them forever. Worldly people
cannot receive the Spirit of truth because they don't know or
recognize (divine, eternal) truth, but Jesus' disciples know him
because he dwells with them and will be within them.
Jesus promised not to leave his disciples desolate (bereft;
comfortless); Jesus promised to come to them. Jesus said that the
world would no longer see Jesus, but his disciples would; then
they would know that as Jesus lives (eternally), they will live
also. In that day they would know that as Jesus is in God and God
in Jesus, that they would be in Jesus and Jesus in them.
Jesus said, “He who has my commandments and keeps them, he
it is who loves me; and he who loves me will be loved by my
father, and I will love him and manifest (reveal) myself to him”
(John 14:21).
Commentary:
God is God and
Lord of heaven and earth, whether we acknowledge him or not! Those
who have come to know him and have experienced his deeds of
deliverance and help will worship and praise him with
thanksgiving.
Two of God's great acts of
deliverance were delivering his people from bondage to sin and
death in Egypt by parting the Red Sea so that his people could
pass through on dry ground, but cutting off their pursuers. Then,
after their nomadic forty years in the wilderness, God parted the
waters of the Jordan River, so they could enter into the Promised
Land on dry ground. God is the Creator of everything in heaven and
earth, including ourselves, who has supernatural power beyond our
human ability or understanding.
God has
specifically designed this Creation with the intention of creating
an eternal kingdom of his people who willingly trust and obey him.
This present world is limited by time. This lifetime is our only
opportunity to seek and come to know God our Creator, and this is
only possible through Jesus Christ, by the gift of his indwelling
Holy Spirit. Only Jesus gives the gift of the indwelling Holy
Spirit (John 1:31-34), only to his disciples who trust and obey
Jesus (John 14:15-17). We are spiritually “reborn;” “born
from above” (John 3:3, 5-8), through the indwelling Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the seal and guarantee that one is in Christ
and has eternal life (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13-14;
Romans 8:9b, 11, 15-16). Jesus Christ has been part of God's plan
from the very beginning of Creation and has been designed into it
(John 1:1-5, 14).
God has no obligation to hear and
respond to us unless we are willing to acknowledge, trust and obey
God (Hebrews 11:6). God does not listen to the prayers of those
who don't hear and obey God's Word (Psalm 66:18; see Conditions
for Answered Prayer, sidebar, top right).
Paul
didn't waste any opportunity to present the Gospel, and he did it
within the context of his circumstances, by the power and guidance
of the Holy Spirit. Paul (Saul of Tarsus) is the prototype and
example of the “modern,” “post-resurrection,” “born-again”
disciple and apostle (messenger; of the Gospel), which we all can
be (Acts 9:1-21).
He presented the full, one and
only Gospel, but changed the way he presented it according to the
circumstances.
The one and only true God has power
and knowledge beyond human ability. Idols are the creation of
human imagination and craftsmanship. Idols cannot do anything even
for themselves. They become a burden to their worshipers. In
contrast, God needs no one to advise, provide or help him.
Instead, he is the source and provider of everything.
God has been progressively revealing his purpose for Creation
from the very beginning. This is not a Creation that has gone
“wrong” or is out of God's control. The disobedience of Adam
and Eve came as no surprise to God (Genesis 3:1-24). Since then he
has been revealing his provision of forgiveness of sin
(disobedience of God's Word; Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8-10) and
salvation from eternal condemnation, which is the penalty for sin
(Romans 6:23; see God's Plan of Salvation, sidebar, top right).
In the record of Noah and the Flood in the Bible, God
deliberately intended it to also be a parable, a metaphor, of life
in this temporal world. Noah is a forerunner of the Christ, who
calls the people of the world to repent and turn to obedient trust
in God's Word. God had a covenant with Noah to save those who
trusted and obeyed God, through the waters of the Flood, by the
Ark. Those who did not listen to Noah's proclamation of God's Word
perished! Only eight people were saved out of hundreds of
thousands.
Christian Baptism is the the “New Red
Sea,” the “New Flood” through which we can be saved from
slavery to sin and eternal destruction only by faith (obedient
trust) in Jesus Christ, who is the “New Moses,” the mediator
of the “New Covenant” (“Testament”) of grace (unmerited
favor; a free gift; Matthew 26:28 RSV note “g;” Ephesians
2:8-9; Hebrews 9:20; KJV “New Testament;” see title page, RSV
p. iii, New Testament, Thomas Nelson & Sons, Camden, N. J.,
1952).
Jesus gave his disciples his final
instructions before his crucifixion. Jesus said that their
obedient trust in keeping Jesus' teachings would reveal their love
for Jesus and prove that they were Jesus' disciples (John
13:34-35). Jesus promised to send the gift of the indwelling Holy
Spirit only to his disciples who trusted and obeyed Jesus'
teachings (John 14:15-17). The Holy Spirit would be their
counselor who would teach them and lead them into all (divine,
eternal) truth, help them remember Jesus' commandments (John
14:26, empower them to know and do God's will, and give them the
appropriate Word of God at the moment it is needed; and he speaks
through his disciples(Mark 13:11; Luke 12:11-12). The Holy Spirit
is also the comforter who provides divine comfort, assurance and
peace.
Jesus said that he would no longer be seen
by worldly people (because he would physically die), but his
disciples would see him (because Jesus promised to manifest
(reveal) himself to them; John 14:21). Then they would be certain
that Jesus is eternally alive, and that they would also live
eternally.
After his resurrection, Jesus' final
instructions, the Great Commission, before his ascension into
heaven was for his disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they had
received the promised gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit (Luke
24:49; Acts 1:4-5, 8), and then to go into all the world and make
(“born-again”) disciples and teach them to obey all that Jesus
commanded (Matthew 28:19-20).
Peter, one of the
original twelve disciples and apostles (messengers; of the
Gospel), was carrying out Jesus' Great Commission. He was teaching
new believers to know, trust and obey Jesus' teachings, to know
God's Word and to resist temptation to do what is contrary to
God's Word (which is the definition of sin). He was teaching them
to know and follow the example and teaching of Jesus.
Peter taught them that the whole Bible is God's Word and is
intended by God to point to Jesus Christ, God's “anointed”
eternal Savior and King. The Bible is filled with “word-pictures”
of God's plan and purpose for Creation.
In our
culture today there are a lot of people who are very “religious,”
but who don't know God individually and personally by the
indwelling Holy Spirit, or even from reading the Bible. There are
lots of nominal “Churches” who are failing to make disciples
of Jesus Christ and teach them to obey all his commands (see False
Teachings, sidebar,top right). They teach that one is
automatically “born-again” by a ritual of baptism, without the
requirement of obedient discipleship.
Many nominal
“Christians” pursue modern idolatries such as career, success,
power, status, wealth, material possessions, pleasure, home and
family. Anything or person one loves as much as or more than the
Lord is idolatry. Is one putting the Lord first in one's
priorities by spending forty or more hours a week on a secular
career and another forty hours a week pursuing pleasure and
material things, and an hour or two in Church on Sunday, provided
that there isn't something else going on? Is one who loves the
Lord unable to give thirty minutes a day to read, meditate and
pray on God's Word?
Is Jesus your Lord? Are you
Jesus disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you
received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed
(Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching
them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you
know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13;
Ephesians 1:13-14)?
* “Noah, ”Easton's Bible
Dictionary, digital module, BibleTime freeware,
http://www.bibletime.info/
See Free Digital Bible Study
Tools, sidebar top right.
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